PS VITA GOTY 2012

So the PS Vita has had an extremely tough first year on the market with gamers talking about the prospects of the struggling handheld worldwide and most of the media well.... saying its the new Dreamcast and that it will be extinct if it doesn't buck up its ideas soon. But amongst a year of doom and gloom for the handheld there has been a year with some great games for it, despite gaps in particular genres which might put some off there are still some games in its library it can call stunning.

1) RAYMAN ORIGINS

So in comes my first nomination for game of the year, Rayman Origins was stunning on the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 last year, and was stellar but that didn't show in its sales. Cue 2012 and the PSV, 3DS and PC versions and voila here we are with the launch title that is Rayman Origins Vita!

I don't think I need to say it but Rayman Origins was already a stunning game on the consoles, but it feels at home on the Vita on that gorgeous OLED screen to compliment its heavy reliance on the deep blacks and rich colours in both Rayman himself and the environments. People will be like 'Oh its a port, why did you put a port in your Vita GOTY your proving it has no original games' and to that I would simply say I don't care, I was never going to omit this game from being in the running for my GOTY. Especially since I find this version more intuitive you can zoom in and out on the touchscreen, tap enemies to get the lums from them or tap the lums themselves before they fly off screen. The addition of relics as well added more fantastic collectibles and trophies making the game all the more exciting. If I was to dig any problems it would be the omission of multiplayer, but honestly with the soundtrack sounding great, fantastic graphics, a long campaign and silky smooth animations it would be crazy not to nominate this game!

2) Escape Plan

Right you might be thinking this is quite an obscure choice particularly as on this very blog I gave the game just a 7/10 and said that while I loved the style and its ambitions there were quite a lot of flaws. However since I reviewed it at release Funbits interactive were out to prove me wrong, they kept updating the game, and I must say I tip my hat to them for it as hardly any developers nowadays support their games as much as Funbits interactive have supported this. With the addition of a new stars system, a new control scheme with the ability to use some of the buttons as well and improving the preciseness of touch controls means that this stylish puzzler can show off the hardware in style and at just £9.99 there is a enough content available with plenty of DLC if you need more (it was handy because I got all the DLC on discount or free) so while this may be unexpected I wanted a digital game to be on here and I think this is representative of the types of title PSN on Vita can offer, so my suggestion is if you love a puzzler give Lil and Laarg (LARGE - it annoys me when people pronounce it laarg as in lager!) a go in Escape Plan.

3) UNCHARTED: GOLDEN ABYSS

Uncharted is one of my all time favourite PS franchises because it tries to break the limits of what the hardware can do , and there's no denying Naughty Dog has inspired many developers with their work particularly on UC2 and UC3, but now it was Sony Bend's turn and I must admit I was apprehensive at first...

But UC:GA for the most part delivers it offers stunning sound quality, top notch environments and character models and superb lighting. But not just that it offers great shooting and platforming mechanics. Yeah, some will say it didn't even use the full resolution the Vita is capable of, but to me that makes it more endearing in the sense that I want to know what could have been done with more time. This game did have some frustrations there is no denying it, a QTE touchscreen final boss (WHY?!) and the return of tilt when your on beams were among them. But the precision of shooting with a sniper rifle in the game was superb, I could carry off headshots like never before, that touch screen precision made the gameplay all the more enjoyable and the thing is this FELT like a blockbuster game and to this day even after getting my platinum for it months back I still play it with my headphones in to soak up the atmosphere that this game produced (Plus the easter egg on crushing towards the end of the game scared the crap out of me because I didn't know it was coming and was weirded out) this game has been one of the biggest achievements to date.

4) GRAVITY RUSH

By a mile this was the game I was most looking forward to on the Vita ever since I heard the developers attached to it and heard about the mechanics. Despite it being delayed passed the launch day it still delivered on its promises and beyond with an openworld that looked absolutely stunning. A very likeable cast of characters a story that was well constructed and enjoyable is what made this game so good. The mechanics while tough to get your head around at first are extremely innovative and for the most part well implemented. The game has such varied combat as well and is absolutely magnificent at some of the boss battles, especially once you can see the difference in an upgraded Kat. This game is stellar and while many felt let down by it, it was one of the first Vita games where I said to myself 'this is what Vita is about!'.While Greg Miller might not have absolutely loved it, it was right up there with the best of the best for me!

Virtue's Last Reward I fear is a game people will be like WTF about me putting in here, but it is one of the best releases for the PS Vita to date. While it is on the 3DS as well and I had tried both versions this was the one oddly enough I enjoyed more purely because of its better presentation and crisper character models. Now this 'game' is more like an interactive graphic novel where you make heart wrenching decisions, do you betray your allies or do you help them? Which door should you go through, is that path really the best path to take?

Those are the sorts of question you will ask yourself as you go through the game. While the relationships in this game aren't quite as poignant if you loved The Walking Dead this might be worth checking out as its similar in the sense its mostly story and decisions with injections of gameplay with are called 'the escape' in which you solve puzzles and investigate to move onto the next room as you attempt to escape and Virtue's Last Reward won't let you go. (N.B. You do not have to play its predecessor 999 on the DS but it might be worth picking it up if you like to solve all the mysteries yourself before they're unveiled)

6) LITTLEBIGPLANET

Again I've broken my own rules of only nominating 5 games but this was the game I needed to make the exception for. LBP is the single most powerful game the Vita has at the moment with its superb creation tools, exciting sense of community and its apt campaign. Plus Stephen Fry's voice is perfect as he reprises his role as the voice of LBP. This is Sackboy's best adventure yet as it includes the addition of touch screen and rear touch pad and these can be used in so many ways and there are already exciting levels being made. There's nothing more to say really if you know LBP you know its amazing and this is the best yet.

AND THE WINNER IS...

LITTLEBIGPLANET VITA!

This was an extremely tough category as well but with my absence of not having played through P4G this was the next choice as it offers so much content to the user and creates an entire ecosystem and an entire community to be part of. Giving words of encouragement to a budding creator always feels good. Plus even if you don't create this has enough varied types of game for you to enjoy and will provide you with hours of fun in your hand, plus for all you creators out there if you have a 3G Vita you can upload your level on the go!

But alas I'm not lying to you but I'm going to give a second place out on this award to.....

AND THE RUNNER UP IS...

GRAVITY RUSH

Notable Mentions:

Persona 4 Golden - Now the reason this is not in the main nominations is I haven't played the full game and it is not out in UK yet and I dont wanna give a game an unfair pegging from only having played a few hours on my friends PSV so that is the only reason this is not yet nominated.

PSASBR - Its not perfect but the introduction of Cross-buy and Cross-play as well as Cross-save on this title makes it a testament to exactly how all these words with cross in front of them work!